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You may wonder at the title of this blog post but while at the Dane County Farmer’s Market today I discovered a pendant was stolen. I commented out loud that I just realized that someone had stolen a piece of jewelry. 2 ladies at my booth asked what was stolen and when I told them it was a sterling cross that I had made — they said at the same time “Well, they’re going to hell for sure.” I was quite amused ’cause the thought crossed my mind that if you’re going to steal something a cross wouldn’t be at the top of most folk’s mind, I wouldn’t think. But then again, I’m not sure if everyone realizes the significance of what the cross means to most folks.

I have to say I’ve been quite fortunate in that this is only the second item that I’ve had stolen in about 6 or 7 years of doing shows but it did kind of top of the day since I and all the other vendors in my area got 30.00 parking tickets today. I’ve parked in that lot for 3 years myself and some of the vendors have parked there for years and years. If they didn’t like us parking there they could have left notices that there was a change in someone’s policy and we shouldn’t be parking there. I’m guessing Walker’s minions thought it was a good way to raise some extra money but all they’ve done is p*ss us off even more…

On the flip side, the weather was wonderful today — sunny and a bit of a breeze so we didn’t mind the 80 some degrees today when last week it was in the 40’s with rain. Folks were in great moods today and having a wonderful time. The air just vibrated with the energy at the market today.

http://www.bleilysgems.com/YearofJewelry2011/2011/02/something-to-talk-about-week-7-yoj-joella-miller/

My newest piece of jewelry for the year. And the story behind it.

http://snipurl.com/1wdrfx

The link above will take you to the project for Week 3 of Year of Jewelry.

The paper I used in this week’s project really looked like an ocean to me and I’m glad to see that in the end the pendant still have that watery look to it – waves with ’stuff’ among them.

This link will take you to another blog where I have posted what I did the first week in January with jewelry. http://www.bleilysgems.com/YearofJewelry2011/2011/01/variation-on-a-weave-week-1/

For those trying to read this on a regular basis, you will have noticed that there was nothing posted here since we went to World Burn Congress in Galveston in October 2010. The Congress was quite exhilarating as I was debuting a line of jewelry created to raise awareness and support for burn survivors. The response was overwhelming and I sold out of almost everything I took — 80 pieces of jewelry! I came home with 3 bracelets, 3 necklaces and a single charm left. I immediately ordered more charms to have in stock.

Christmas was around the corner and I was able to deliver my last 2 orders the Monday before Christmas. We headed home that week to spend time with family and friends – made the trip through Chicago and to my mom’s house where upon the fuel pump died. So thankful it died there and not in Chicago!!

We made it back to WI in time for Don to help tear down the train layout at Rotary Gardens in Janesville for another year.

While he was working on that, I was catching up on emails and some paperwork. I realized that it was time to start another Year of Jewelry on one of the forums that I check out periodically. I’ve thought about it in the past but was never in the right spot at the right time. And this year it worked!

I’ve committed to creating a piece of jewelry every week. And the link at the top of this page is the posting about it. There will be weeks this year where that is what will be posted here also. Hope you enjoy it as a challenge for jewelry artists to create their piece around a theme. Themes have never been something I’ve dealt well with – whether it was a theme in a book for English class or…

Yesterday at the Market in Madison I opted not to put  up my canopy for the day. It was October 9 and the weatherman was predicting about 80 degrees for the day.It actually broke a 131 year record for temps on that date –  85 degrees!

I’m on the ’shady’ side of the street and knew the sun would be behind Park Bank by 10:30 at the latest and I would be in the shade the rest of the day.So leaving the canopy in the truck Don and I started to set up my tables. Talk about disoriented — it’s amazing how much I depend on those ‘invisible walls’ when I set up my booth. There are only the 4 corner post of  the canopy legs but not having them really threw me off. I had to rearrange my tables twice to put them in the proper place because of the totally different feeling.

I had wonderful light all day on my jewelry and it worked out beautifully in the end but I realized how dependent I am on the ‘invisible walls’. And the more I thought about it last night the more it occurred to me that we all have ‘invisible walls’ of a sort in many different things we do. We are so used to having things run a particular way that do do it differently confuses not only us, but others around us. I know when I was growing up I was so tired of hearing ‘ We’ve always done it that way’! And long into my 20s and 30s I heard it. Even when we moved to a new state and neighborhood I heard that – on City Council and church committees I hear the familiar refrain – we’ve always done it that way’. For many things, it is a good deal to follow the past practice – while on the Personnel Committee for the City, we wrote the first Personnel Manual and following those past practices was a good thing and we were usually quite glad to hear ‘ we’ve always done it that way’. But some committees get quite tired of hearing that refrain when trying to bring some new blood to an old organization that needs a bit of a boost.

So while you are out and about this week — try to break down those ‘invisible walls’ and see how things go!

Please click on picture for total view

For the last couple of years, I have donated 5% of my total sales to the Phoenix Society as they are doing much needed work for burn survivors. I’ve also toyed with how to do a continual fundraiser through my business and I’m thrilled to announce that I will be premiering a line of awareness jewelry featuring a sterling charm with the Phoenix on it. As we speak the charms are being made so I do not have a charm to show you yet but I was so excited that we (myself and the Phoenix Society) are at this point I had to share!

The Phoenix Society is an important part of our life. For those who know me only online do not know my husband is a burn survivor of 54 years. Until we were in our late 30s or early 40s we had never met another burn survivor.

One day on the noon news he saw a news piece about a burn survivor meeting in Grand Rapids – not far from where we lived at the time. He went to a meeting and met a wonderful woman named Amy Acton. At the time, Amy was head nurse of the Burn Unit at Blodgett Hospital in Grand Rapids and she had started this support group. Through this group Don learned of the Phoenix Society and we were fortunate enough to get some funding through the Phoenix Society to attend the World Burn Congress which is sponsored by the Phoenix Society in Detroit that year.

What a conference! We met a wonderful group of survivors and learned that the Phoenix Society was started by a gentleman named Alan Breslau after he was burned in a plane crash in 1963. After working for many years with burn survivors he started The Phoenix Society – named after the bird that rises from the ashes, renewed and better than before! Alan retired in 1998 and the Board of Directors named Amy Acton as their new chairperson.

We have not been able to attend WBC every year but have attended many over the years. And we are going to World Burn Congress again this year — this time it is in Galveston, TX. Every year, it is held in a different part of the country to make it easier for a variety of folks to attend who may not be able to travel long distances due to physical and monetary issues.

There is no picture today — I’m just too danged tired to look for one in my files.

I just got home from doing a show at Tallman House in Janesville and I’m whipped.

First it rained for 2 and 1/2 hours during setup then when it quit the wind came up — and gusted. A couple of times I held onto my little EZ UP debating what else the weather was going to do today. And then I heard breaking glass — checked the lady next to me with stained glass, not her. It was a couple of booths over – a watercolorist who lost the glass on a painting when the wind picked the picture right up off the easel and slammed it onto the ground.

Next time I peeked out I saw a lady who had just a backyard canopy that had  flipped over – didn’t appear to damage anything at her booth. And then I heard some woman yelling behind me. Her canopy had apparently cartwheeled end for end. After checking I began to smile — this was a women who berated her husband and daughters loudly and often while they tried to help her  set up a canopy for the second time (first time apparently in the backyard while the sun was shining). I’m guessing it was a while ago and no one made notes ’cause they took it apart and put it back together 3 times. The neighbor beside me quietly offered to help her and noticed that it was put together wrong. When pointing it out to her, the inexperienced woman informed everyone around her she had ‘good problem solving skills – it said so on her first grade report card!”.  The rest of us all rolled our eyes and snickered. It’s been a while since that woman had been in first grade, let me tell you!!

Today was a good lesson in being prepared. 2 and 1/2 hours of rain followed by wind gusts of 30mph or so followed by a  rise in the humidity till we sweat while standing still in the shade.

The good thing about today was I had a very nice neighbor from Milwaukee who makes very cool jewelry too — Bad Dog Studio I believe is her business name. Together we rolled our eyes and made smart remarks about folks who are ornery and make everyone else’s morning a little more miserable than it needed to be.

Please click on picture for closer look.

Before I left for Michigan for a vacation I saw a picture of a sterling heart — just the outline but very attractive looking. But while in Michigan it was not a vacation as we had planned. Instead my dad passed away. His health had been getting worse and in the end, it is a blessing but it’s not what I had in mind for the trip back home.

Since coming home to Wisconsin I’ve been getting ready to go back to the Dane County Farmer’s Market on the square in Madison this Saturday and then on Sunday I have an art show at the Tallman House in Janesville.

Checking my earring racks I realized that I needed another 10 or so pair of earrings so that was yesterday’s project. But in the back of my mind while I was creating earrings was ‘Where did I see that sterling heart?” I would make a pair of earrings and then look. I looked through all my recent magazine purchases, looked at my tutorial downloads and pulled up the history on my computer — no heart to be found. I could have gotten the darn earrings made a lot quicker if that heart hadn’t haunted me all day. I emailed some online friends  wondering if any of them had seen it. One said she did and spent her morning check her magazines but couldn’t find it and another emailed me this morning with the info — thank you Kate and Barb!!

The heart on the left is the one I conjured up from what I remembered of the picture. The one in the middle is following the tutorial. The one on the right is a different version.

Maybe there is a reason this heart demanded to be made this week…

Please click for a closer look

Well, tonight was a perfect example of small town Wisconsin on a Sunday night. Music in the park with friends and neighbors – folks dancing the polka and 2 step on the lawn and cement walkways.

It has been in the low  to mid 90s here for the last few days with about 95% humidity and today was no exception. When we walked out of church this morning just before 10 the humidity was a slap in the face. After getting home, I set the AC to a somewhat comfortable temp and did chores around the house. We had plans for friends to come to Brodhead and go out for  supper before going to the park for music. I had stepped out about 4pm and it was still pretty miserable.The local Brodhead Optimists were  having a pie/ice cream fundraiser tonight and I had the oven and AC running today as I had volunteered to bake 2 pies (pumpkin if anyone is wondering).And they sold 17 pies which means about 120-150 folks had pie and ice cream while they enjoyed the music.

For about 8 weeks in the summer the  BID Board in Brodhead sponsors a different band who play every Sunday night from 6:30 to 8pm.  The band scheduled for tonight’s concert was the Stateline Playboys. The Playboys are a local group who have been together in one form or another since 1965. They had some of the past musicians come up and play with them tonight. They play a great mix of waltzes, polkas including yodeling(a must in a Swiss settled county) and a range of music from Stray Cats to Ritchie Valens and more.The weather cooperated beautifully. While we were eating supper the temperature started to drop a bit. The wind that had been blowing all afternoon settled into a steady breeze keeping the mosquitoes at bay. Lots of old trees surround the park and bandshell where the musicians play. Plenty of lawn and sidewalk left for folks to dance among us folks who just tap our toes.  In case the pie and ice cream wasn’t enough, the local Dairy Queen circulated a cheese tray from our local cheesemaker. Talk about a perfect summer evening – tonight was it! An ideal evening that doesn’t come around often – even in a small town.

And just in case you’re wondering what the picture of the bracelet has to do with the story — it’s my mom’s birthday present and I wore it tonight to ’stress test’ before I give it to her — even tho’ it will be a month late. Happy Birthday!!

Please click on picture for closer look.

Apparently besides being a good vendor to bead artists, Szarka can read minds! Szarka of Turquoise Magpie has a monthly drawing for free beads for those of us who have signed up for her newsletter. I’ve been meaning to order some more tiger eye from her as she has a great supply of wonderful shapes and sizes. In my package of beads were a strand of tiger eye rounds, some blue/brown tiger eye nuggets, an assortment of pure copper findings and a beautiful pendant — which  I think is tiger iron. It has a wonderful shimmer and I’m thinking it’s going to be a great focal for the necklace I’m intending on making. Thanks so much!! I can hardly wait to see what I create with the great assortment of beads.